


Blue Fire

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: The Travel Collection: Drabbles, Snippets, and Supershorts [5]
Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-05-23
Packaged: 2017-12-12 17:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That winter, he fought wolves over a carcass, and lost. Died drowning in his own blood and woke cold and hungry and confused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue Fire

He was born under a canopy of leaves, raised under the roof of the forest. His human parents were lost almost before he could remember, and he found his way to a winter cave, curling into the warmth of his mother, his brother cradled in his lap. He grew strong, and fierce, and he helped his mother raise many years of brothers and sisters.

When his mother died, his youngest sister took her cave, and she mothered him as he had helped to mother her. He grew, and helped to teach his sister's sons and daughters. And when he was big enough, he left to find his own territory, as a son should. Wandered far, and found a piece of forest that he could claim with much food.

That winter, he fought wolves over a carcass, and lost. Died drowning in his own blood and woke cold and hungry and confused. He fought the wolves over another carcass, and tore the alpha apart with his blunt-clawed paws and too-small teeth. Hard-won and painful, but where he should have died, he lived and healed and continued to fight.

Seasons passed, and he held his forest, outlived all those who surrounded him. He encountered strange creatures with two legs from time to time, who made noises he did not understand, but thought he should. Sometimes they had prey animals, and he hunted them because they were easy to catch. Sometimes they were alone, and he hunted them because they were intruders into his territory.

And sometimes they came with sharp weapons, hunting him or his prey or the wolves he's called enemy and help for all his life after coming here. Then he hunts them in turn because they're a danger, and another predatory, and he will not tolerate strange things hunting his food.

Until one day, someone comes who doesn't hunt him, and is not easy prey. Who shows him that the strange two-legged male bleeds blue fire that heals him. Another like him, strange and different. He is curious, and follows the man. Leaves behind his forest and his territory, and learns how to be something else.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "tree".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Branching From the Center](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1539051).


End file.
